Sunday, March 31, 2013

…hopelessness has become hope,
…despair has become trust,
…voicelessness has become praise,
…impossibility has become probability,
…ending has become beginning,
…confusion has become wonder,
…sob has become gasp,
…grief has become anticipation, and
…death has become life,

Saturday, March 30, 2013

From heaven’s glory to a human story;
from the angels’ portrayal to a disciple’s betrayal;
from Bethlehem’s manger to Jerusalem’s danger;
from being acclaimed to being defamed;
from water to wine to blood from his side;
from helping and healing to crying and bleeding;
from Mary’s womb to a garden tomb.

Friday, March 29, 2013

While it may seem at first glance that hate nailed Jesus to the cross, it is actually the case that love put him there. His love—God’s love—compelled him to give his life up.

As we think about the meaning of his death, about the meaning of our lives, and about the meaning of taking up our cross and following him, help us to remember that love will also put us where we need to be—and that our place may well be a painful and costly one.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

On this day we can’t help but think about denial and betrayal; we must ask you to give us grace and strength to be faithful to you so that we won’t let you down. We must also ask you to forgive us for those times that we have by our words—or by our silence—and by our actions—or by our inaction—betrayed or denied you.

We also can’t help but think about the “new commandment” that you gave to us on the night that you were betrayed, the commandment to love each other as you have loved us. Help us to love you with everything we are and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Help us to love you by loving other people. Show us ways that we can lay down our lives for one another.

Help us to live out our faithfulness to you through our faithfulness to each other.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Confront us with the reality of what happened to and through Jesus during his last days on earth. Help us to see it all with eyes, spirits, and lives wide open; do not let us shy away from any of it. Cause us to experience the awfulness and the wonder of it all.

It means everything; help us to be caught up in more of everything that it means.

Friday, March 22, 2013

Remind us, O God, that while we are not to be formed and shaped by the world—we are to be formed and shaped by you—we neither can nor should cut ourselves off from it.

It is the world, after all, in which we live and in which we will spend a good many years, and this time, while not lengthy in the scheme of eternity, is important and meaningful; lead us to experience it fully, without fear and with great curiosity.

As we experience the world, help us to take it into ourselves in ways that are appropriate and helpful; help us to take joy and multiply it, to take pain and heal it, and to take sorrow and redeem it.

Enable us to experience it all in the light of who we are in the process of becoming in you.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

We acknowledge the truth that it is possible in our own strength to change enough of what we do and to change enough of how we look to cause others to think that we are good.

But we also acknowledge the truths that such “change” is not enough and that real change—a change in our heart, in our spirit, in our motivation, and in our perspective—can be brought about only by you.

We furthermore acknowledge that the inner change brought about by you will cause our actions to change and that our changed actions will not be cosmetic but will come out of who you are forming us to be; we will, in other words, have integrity.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

If you are at the center of our lives, O God, you are also at the periphery, since as God you must have all of our being and be in all of our experience.

Make us aware of the people and the events that also lie at the periphery of our lives and at the periphery of our vision.

It is difficult because we cannot bear to be aware of everybody and everything; only you can experience and handle that kind of awareness. But we confess that we need to be more aware of those on the edges of our experience and vision because all too often when we don’t notice them it is because we have become focused on ourselves and our little world and not on you and your expansive world.

After all, focusing on you leads us to notice and to reach out to others; we can’t love you and not love other people.

So broaden our awareness, O God; from our center where we rest in you cause us to notice and to reach out to those on the periphery.

Monday, March 18, 2013

We acknowledge and affirm that heaven is our destination and that becoming Christ-like is our goal; we also acknowledge and affirm that we are not there yet and that we do not yet live as the completely mature children of God that we will one day and forever be.

Help us to keep our focus on heaven so that we will be constantly moving up toward the place where we will be everything we are meant to be and so that we will always be becoming a more helpful presence here and now.

Help us to keep our eyes on Christ so that we will be constantly moving up toward who we can be in him and so that we will always be becoming a more hopeful presence in the lives of those around us.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

with a deep awareness of who we are before you,
with broken and contrite hearts,
with wonder over the great love and grace embodied in Jesus Christ our Lord,
and
with joyful celebration of your forgiveness.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Forgive our tendency to try to go it alone; forgive us when we forget that you made us to live in community and that we are members of your family and of Christ’s body.

Help us, as we all move along the path of discipleship and through the challenges of life, to move with each other; help us to inspire each other, to forgive each other, to assist each other, and to know each other. Help us to love one another.

Lead us, as we move with each other, to pick each other up and to help each other along.

Let us never kick each other when we’re down or abandon each other when we get lost.

Friday, March 15, 2013

It has been said that pride is the root of all sin; help us to practice the discipline of prayerful reflection with the goal of identifying the pride within us so that we can submit to the cleansing power of your grace and forgiveness.

We know that you love and value us; we know that we are special to you.

But we also know that to be who we are meant to be we need to live our lives in reverence for you and in service to others.

Even as you give us grace to know that we are special to you, also give us grace to move down in our self-ranking of who is most important so that we will see ourselves in proper relation to you and to other people.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Thank you for the ways in which you by your grace and Spirit strengthen, enlarge, and develop our spirit; thank you for the good your work in us does for us.

But keep us constantly aware that it is not just for us.

Grant that your ever-increasing love, grace, and mercy in us will lead and even compel us to move out into our community and into the lives of those around us that we might help as we can and show your love as we can.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Thank you for ways in which we have moved away from patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting that were symptoms of being less than we are meant to be and for ways in which we have moved toward patterns that indicate that we are growing into the image of Christ Jesus our Lord.

Give us grace- and Spirit-fueled discipline to continue moving toward the goal of living consistently in ways that reflect the purity of heart and singleness of devotion that characterized Jesus.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

We say we are going to “turn in” when we are ready to go to bed, when we ready to lie down and rest.

So in our spirit, O God, help us constantly to turn in; help us always to rest in you, knowing that you are with us to love us and protect us, no matter what is going on around us or what is happening to us.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Remind us that not every opportunity is a good one; give us discernment to know which ones to accept and which ones to turn down.

If it will cause us to harm other people, lead us to turn it down.
If it will threaten to hinder our witness, lead us to turn it down.
If it will empower us to tear down rather than to build up, lead us to turn it down.
If it will endanger the health of our family, lead us to turn it down.
If it will pose danger to our spirit, lead us to turn it down.
If it will nurture greed rather than generosity, lead us to turn it down.
If it will emphasize security over sacrifice, lead us to turn it down.
If it will feed selfishness rather than selflessness, lead us to turn it down.

Remind us that not every opportunity is a good one; give us discernment to know which ones to accept and which ones to turn down.

Sunday, March 3, 2013

We will bring our spirit before you—the spirit that has been formed by our experiences, that has been stunted by our fears, that has been lessened by our prejudices, and that has been softened by your love.

We will bring our truth before you—the “truth” that we hold onto despite all evidence to the contrary, the “truth” that we cling to because it is all we have ever known, the “truth” that we foster by listening only to those who think like we do, and the truth that you in your grace keep gently leading us toward.

We will today bring our spirit and our truth into the presence of your all-pervasive Spirit and your all-encompassing Truth. Please let your Spirit and your Truth inhabit us so as to expand, to enlarge, and to enhance our spirit and our truth.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Sometimes we try to turn back in ways that are inappropriate. Forgive us, Lord, when we try to live in the past; forgive us when we try to live as if changes have not occurred that in fact have; forgive us when we try to turn back to ways of thinking and acting that we should have moved beyond by this point in our walk with you.

Sometimes we need to turn back in ways that are appropriate. Help us especially to turn back to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord so that our lives will be permeated by those realities.

Let us pray ...

About Prayer 365

The prayers that appear at Prayer 365 are written and published by Michael L. Ruffin. Permission is granted to use or adapt these prayers in public worship with the condition that if a prayer is reproduced in a printed order of worship attribution is given. Permission is also granted to link to a prayer at this site provided that a link back to this blog is provided. All other rights are reserved. All Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version unless otherwise indicated.